The criticism was harsh enough to draw the ire of
Bill O'Reilly who referred to
Maddow as "madam" and noted with glee that his show "kicks your
network’s butt."

She appear to be back at it this week. Except this time
around her focus is not Fox News. It's CNN.

She is still scorching.

Maddow has devoted two segments since Tuesday to criticism of
CNN's decision to air Michele Bachmann's Tea Party
response to the State of the Union: "Inexplicably, a national
news network decided that they would give Michele Bachmann a job
that her own party never did."

CNN's Piers Morgan
leapt to his new network's defense on Twitter saying: "Sorry, but just nonsense for
@maddow to say @cnn shouldn’t have run Tea Party speech. Rep
split is proper news, may decide next election."

Last night Maddow pulled a Jon Stewart and put together a series
of clips of CNN pundits
criticizing the channel's decision to air Bachmann (oh,
Wolf Blitzer).

Maddow went on to itemize why the Tea Party Express, the group to
whom Bachmann was actually responding (and whose camera she was
addressing) is a "sort of a scam" ever since a Republican
political consulting firm set it up and now uses it to fund
candidates.

More problematic, however, and what is essentially the heart of
the problem is that CNN has teamed up with the Tea Party Express
to
host a 2012 debate.

For their coverage of the State of the Union this year CNN did
not present the news, they presented a reality of their own
making. One in which their debate partner officially speaks
for the Tea Party. And the Tea Party is a co-equal third
party of equal stature to the Democrats and the
Republicans. And CNN has a competitive and
potentially financial interest in selling you that reality
as if it is news. It's too bad.